If you don’t own your own domain name, you need to stop reading this article right now and buy it. Once your blog gets AT ALL popular (by which we mean your mom, your grandma and one other loyal fan), there’s a chance that some weird domain name hostage sniping will happen, and someone will buy your domain name right from under you. This can even happen if your blog’s name is highly unique, like Dolly Doodle’s Donut Dogs. Yes, domain names that complex have been purchased by people who had no right to own them. And the blog owners were forced to buy a .net or other not-quite-perfect domain name set up.

To avoid that heartache, just spend the $10 to buy a custom URL. I give you permission to invest your first $10 into your blog-business (or blog-hobby). Whether you blog for fun or business, it’s a $10 well spent.

But I’m afraid of what might happen if I buy my domain name

If you are on Blogger, you might be afraid of what will happen once you buy your domain name. Well, don’t worry. Blogger makes it very easy to buy a domain name and switch your URL. When we’re done with this post, you will have a domain name, and your Blogger blog will no longer have any permalinks that say “yourblog.blogspot.com,” but instead, they’ll be pretty “yourblog.com/permalink.” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you should just follow these instructions anyway, and some day you’ll thank me.

Step 1: Buy Domain Name

The most straightforward way to do this is through Blogger itself. It is only $10, so no reason to go somewhere else. If you already bought your domain name from GoDaddy or similar, read on. We’ll tell you what to do for that in a minute.

On the Blogger dashboard, go to Settings/Publishing.
Click on “Switch to Custom Domain.”

“Buy a domain for your blog” will pop up. Buy one now.
If you have already bought a domain name, click on “Already own a domain? Switch to advanced settings.”

If You Bought Your Domain From GoDaddy or Someone Besides Blogger/Google

Under the CNAME column (those weird pink triangles are pointing to it in the photo above), click on the “CNAMEs for various registrars” and a window will open. Choose your registrar (such as GoDaddy). Follow instructions on that page.

Between these three screens (and your domain registrar dashboard), you should have everything you need. If this seems confusing, just start the process and refer back to this blog post for moral support.

It’s like following a pattern. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense until you jump in and start doing it.